To keep tabs on how Duck Down maintains its hardcore tradition despite also expanding with MTV-friendly acts like Kidz in the Hall, you need look no farther than Ruste Juxx and Marco Polo. Next Thursday, the unlikely pair — Ruste a Brownsville pugilist, Marco a self-described “skinny white guy from Toronto” — will celebrate the release of The eXXecution, which is capable of scaring parents the way Ice-T did in the 1980s. So I asked them to guide us through some Duck Down history, reaching back to when they were just fans themselves.

What album — old or new — would be the best introduction for someone who doesn’t know shit about Duck Down?MP: It’s a toss-up between Black Moon’s Enta da Stage and Smif-N-Wessun’s Dah Shinin’.RJ: Black Moon’s Enta da Stage.

What Boot-Camp-originated slang term do people regularly use without realizing where it came from?
MP: “Bucktown.”RJ: “Bucktown.”

What message do you have for people who say that hardcore hip-hop is over?MP: Please check The Last Stand, Monkey Barz, Jesus Price Supastar, Double Barrel, and The eXXecution, then shut the fuck up.RJ: Cop The eXXecution and [you] be the judge.

Where do you see Duck Down being 15 years from now?MP: The last man standing, and still relevant, like they’ve always been.RJ: With more diverse artists on the roster, doing bigger and greater things.

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